Today I have Kalashnikov USA’s KP-9 (which is a virtually exact semiauto copy of the Vityaz SMG) out at the range. I chose the most suitable ammo to try it out with; slightly rusty steel-case Tulammo. And it just ate it all up. The KP-9 does not have the best trigger or the lightest recoil (although neither is actually bad), but it simply runs like flawless clockwork – and it easy to hit with to boot.
Light MGs
Chauchat Field Testing vs Mock MG08/15 Nest
Out at the range today with the Chauchat, testing accuracy against a simulated MG08/15 nest at 150 yards. I’ll try out semiauto and full auto (in short bursts), and see how they compare. For reference, […]
Antiques
Finland Salvages a “Tragic Boating Accident”: Grafton Vetterli Rifles
During the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese government helped smuggle arms to potential revolutionaries in Russia, in hopes of provoking a domestic crisis that would divert Russia military force form the war. This included a plot […]
Semiauto Rifles
Vintage Saturday: Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance
Cuban exiles training in Florida for the Bay of Pigs invasion, with scoped M1941 Johnson rifles. (coming Monday, a video on the Johnson…)
You might try the ALG recoil spring. Got one in my AKX-9 and it makes the recoil softer while still working with every flavor of ammo I’ve tried.
As for that missing witness hole in the magazine: drill one.
And as for boring to shoot: get further way and fire while moving, but you knew that 🙂
Is their much blowback from a south paw view?
While undoubtedly effective etc. It appears somewhat overkill (including looking rather like a Christmas tree) for an sub machine gun. Was it considered worth it by its Russian customer i.e. acquired in volume by them and did any other countries buy / use it – was it widely exported and used as a standard gun by other than Russia?
They are not very used in Russia itself too…
Mostly for parades and commercials.
In the presence of the AKS-74u and “normal” SMGs, this is useless trash and an extra headache for the chief of armaments.
E.Dragunov (father of one of designer of Vityaz) designed sub-machine gun yet in 1970s. It was unable to met high requirement set back then, but was revived in 1990s resulted in PP-91 also named KEDR (Construction [of] E. DRagunov):
https://modernfirearms.net/en/submachine-guns/russia-submachine-guns/pp-91-kedr-klin-eng/
it does fire 9×18 cartridge and is smaller (shorter – both overall and regarding barrel) and lighter than Vityaz